Nueces appraisal district moves way up on the radar

CORPUS CHRISTI - Suddenly, the taxing entities that are members of the troubled Nueces County Appraisal District have much to consider. At no time since the district was established in 1981 has the importance of who serves on its board and in its top staff positions been more apparent.

On consecutive days last week, Executive Director Ollie Grant announced his retirement, citing his health, and Chairwoman Sandy Billish tendered her resignation, saying her new job with a taxing entity would create a conflict. Two Corpus Christi City Council members publicly, and other officials privately, had called for Grant's ouster. If anyone wanted Billish out, we're not aware of it, but no one should blame her if she wanted out. Her unpaid board position already was thankless before serious problems began surfacing in recent weeks.

Those, primarily, are the huge errors in Corpus Christi and Port Aransas property assessments that undermined those cities' budget and tax rate-setting plans and resulted in the dismissals of two employees, so far. The district initially told Corpus Christi that the city's values were down 6.6 percent, then revised them as being up 1.3 percent. The district initially figured Port Aransas' new construction at $1.3 million when actually it exceeded $21 million.

The appraisal district isn't overly popular in the best of times, when it does its job correctly. Credibility is an issue because owners profess inability to believe their property is worth so much, for tax purposes, though they would expect considerably more if they were to sell. Poker-faced elected officials let the appraisal district take the rap for raising taxes when the decision not to lower the tax rate to offset the rise in valuations is theirs, not the district's.

Credibility is a bigger issue now. The initial explanation for the Corpus Christi mistake was software error, which is nebulous and nonhuman. The error turned out to be a mistaken doubling of homestead exemptions. Grant showed little urgency in addressing the matter, too often letting his assistants do the talking. He also was slow to accept responsibility and when he did, it was an acceptance of responsibility for trusting underlings, which amounts to putting the responsibility on them.

This comedy too recently followed the outrage of the taxing entities' elected officials upon discovering in 2009 that the district had been building a nest egg for a new building by not refunding its budget surpluses to them.

The district has only ever had two executive directors, Grant since 2000, and both left under a cloud. Grant was a hire from within and, considering the current problems, it appears to be time to hire from without, with serious oversight from the board.

Billish was a city appointee. In choosing a replacement, the City Council should consider appointing one of its own members. If not, the appointee should be a Corpus Christi equivalent of a Ross Perot, who had the mettle to bring the no-pass no-play rule to Texas education as a special appointee of Gov. Mark White.

No offense to Billish or the other current appointees — though also no apologies — but until this house is set in order, the governing bodies who make appointments to the appraisal district need to treat it as something bigger than a Port of Corpus Christi appointment, the acknowledged plum of all local appointments. They need to prep their appointees for a hard job with a lot of heat and little reward beyond the satisfaction of a job well done.

Too much is at stake. Credible valuation of real property is too vital. The appointees' search for an executive director should be akin to the recent searches for Corpus Christi's city manager and police chief. Those were outside hires that seem to have worked out well.